When we set out to overhaul our volunteer application process, we knew we had unique requirements, which would likely mean we’d have to custom build our online registration app. We wanted to make our HR department more efficient, but also wanted to make the application process easier and, hopefully, more accurate. Each year we use the skills of 1,200 volunteers, and up until recently, each of those submissions were filled out and processed by hand. Between difficult-to-decipher handwriting, poor quality scans or faxes and data entry mistakes, the application process was fraught with the potential for error.

We searched for a product that would get us beyond the old-fashioned paper application and move us online. We ran into numerous hurdles because our application process isn’t a one-size-fits-all. We hire everyone from trauma surgeons to ship captains, from administrative positions to deck hands and needed a system that would allow us to tailor the process to our unique specifications.

We’d given up in our quest to find a flexible, off-the-shelf product that would integrate with our legacy database and while also providing cross-browser functionality, when our CIO was introduced to OutSystems Platform. He knew immediately this was what we needed. We did a 40-day trial demo, building a proof of concept to make sure we could talk to our internal database.

A former patient is greeted and welcomed by Dr Gary Parker aboard Mercy Ships.

Once we were sure that was working, we signed the deal and started training. I worked with one other staff member - a developer - for six weeks and then after another two weeks, I was on my own. A few weeks later we kicked off installation - it was that fast! We conducted internal demos two months later and after writing some backend pieces and making a few modifications, we launched BETA testing.

Read more about how Mercy Ships was able to rapidly build a custom online registration app for volunteers.

Cory Creamer

Cory is a business analyst with nearly 20 years of experience in connecting teams to deliver quality products and services in the computer software industry. He possesses strong program management skills and has aided in delivering a revolutionary volunteer submission app for Mercy Ships, a global medical non-profit.